Rio de Janeiro’s samba schools usually spend the year furiously sewing costumes for the city’s world-famous Carnival celebration but that creative talent has now been harnessed to make medical outfits for hospital workers who face a surge of Covid-19 patients.

Dr Wille Baracho on Tuesday carried rolls of fabric into the Unidos de Padre Miguel samba school’s workshop in the Vila Vintem favela.

Jaqueline, from the Vila Isabel samba school makes a scrub (Silvia Izquierdo/AP)

“We have some friends who died already, some who are on leave or sick with the disease,” Dr Baracho said, adding that he has found it more fulfilling to produce medical garb than the normal glittery costumes.

“I think everyone here would say that.

“Carnival is a different happiness: fun, a pleasure. This is a mission.”

The Unidos da Vila Isabel samba school joined the effort Tuesday, with two seamstresses getting to work in a warehouse.

More will start sewing soon, both from Vila Isabel and elsewhere as top samba schools across the city are expected to sign on, said Eneida Reis, executive director of assistance at RioSaude, a public company that manages municipal health units.

Every willing hand is welcome.

At just a single municipal hospital treating Covid-19 patients, doctors and nurses can go through 2,000 sets of scrubs every day, according to city officials.

It is not Rio’s first move to channel Carnival spirit toward combating the coronavirus.